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Tuesday, 30 April 2019

April has been Bowel Cancer Awareness Month! #PissOffPhyllis

I did but only because of a fellow blogger, Emma who is pretty amazing and writes at Island Living 365 is currently going through chemotherapy for bowel cancer! She has called her cancer Phyllis hence the Piss off Phyllis hashtag which you may have seen on social media over the last few days. A large group of bloggers came together to support her and raise awareness about Bowel Cancer.

Some Facts:

Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK claiming more than 16,000 lives a year, that's over 44 people every day.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, after breast, prostate and lung cancers.

Every 15 minutes in the UK someone is diagnosed with bowel cancer. That’s almost 42,000 people every year. Every 30 minutes someone dies from the disease in the UK.

More than nine out of ten new cases (94%) are diagnosed in people over the age of 50, and nearly six out of ten cases (58%) are diagnosed in people aged 70 or over. But bowel cancer can affect any age. More than 2,500 people under 50 are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK every year.

1 in 14 men and 1 in 19 women will be diagnosed with bowel cancer during their lifetime.

Bowel cancer is very treatable but the earlier it is diagnosed, the easier it is to treat. People whose cancer is diagnosed at an early stage have a much higher chance of successful treatment than those whose cancer has become more widespread.

If you have any symptoms, don’t be embarrassed and don’t ignore them. Doctors are used to seeing lots of people with bowel problems.

The symptoms of bowel cancer can include:

Bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your poo

A persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit

Unexplained weight loss

Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason

A pain or lump in your tummy

Most people with these symptoms don’t have bowel cancer. Other health problems can cause similar symptoms. But if you have one or more of these or if things just don’t feel right, go to see your GP.

As well as dealing with bowel cancer Emma is doing the Race for Life 5k to raise money and save lives. You can sponsor her via her page. She has already smashed her target but Every single pound donated makes a difference to Cancer Research UK’s groundbreaking work.